Lutz-Splendore-de Almeida disease

Alternative eponyms

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A blastomycosis caused by the fungus Paracoccidioides (Blastomyces) brasiliensis.

Description

A blastomycosis caused by the fungus Paracoccidioides (Blastomyces) brasiliensis. It is an ulcerative process that begins in the mouth or nostrils and spreads to the vicinity, also often spreading to the tonsils, lungs, gastro-intestinal tract, liver and spleen. Four principal types are recognized: the mucocutaneous form, the lymphatic form, the visceral form and the mixed form. It occurs chiefly in South-American farm workers. Picking the teeth with twigs or chewing leaves contaminated with the fungus are the suspected cause.

Blastomycosis was first described by the French botanist and biologist Philippe Edouard Léon Van Tieghem (1839-1914) in 1876. It was next described by the American dermatologist Thomas Caspar Gilchrist (1862-1927) and W. R. Stokes. These descriptions are of "North American" Blastomycosis, which is caused by Blastomyces dermatitidis. This entity will be entered as Gilchrist’s disease. South American" Blastomycosis is caused by a different organism, Paracoccidioides brasiliensis. There is also a "European" blastomycosis caused by the Cryptococcus neoformans fungus.

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